Accidentally a companion of sorts to The Itch Beneath Her Skin, but both can be read separately. This was supposed to be BIllHermione and it is, sort of, but it's mostly Bill-centric now. And I like it better this way.
For Reilly and her muse, from Harry and Clara.
October i
.
She is fourteen, nearly fifteen the first time Bill meets her. She is frizzy-haired and buck-toothed and his kid brother's best friend. He doesn't expect to give her much more than a passing glance.
But then he's explaining the Runes they'd had to decode to find the latest tomb. Charlie's listening intently but Charlie never took Runes — what he knows, he knows from Bill, so he's following but doesn't have much to add. Hermione walks in, listens for a moment, looks at what Bill is gesturing to, and says, "Why is there a Grecian Rune in between all of the Egyptian ones?"
Bill can't help but smile. "Sharp eyes! That's the same thing we wondered, at first. But then we figured out what the rune means."
Hermione frowns down at it. "It's not one I recognize."
"Nor would I expect you to. It's a name."
He watches understanding light behind her eyes, and then a frown as she realises the problem. "How did a Greek name get in an Egyptian tomb?"
"I think it was more than just a name."
And Bill is surprised, surprised at the way Hermione understands and, more than that, makes intuitive leaps, not just following the conversation but at times prompting it.
At some point, Charlie leaves the room. Neither of them notice.
She is so much more than Bill expects, and as she disappears in a whirlwind up the stairs, Bill can't help as his eyes follow her.
.
She is fierce and intelligent and some kind of crazy force of nature. She is also about seven years younger than him and his little brother's best friend. At first, it's respect.
.
He doesn't think about her much. He goes back to Egypt, and it keeps him busy in the way that he loves more than anything in the world.
Less than a year later, Voldemort is back and Bill moves back to London, working at Gringotts as one of the few Wizard employees. It's an interesting job, working with Goblins — not easy work, but then, Bill's never exactly favored easy. And eventually, at least a few of the goblins come to, if not like him or trust him, then at least respect him.
Like everyone else, Bill does what he can. He talks to the goblins about Voldemort, at times. Goblins, as a general rule, don't like to get involved in wizard wars. The consensus seems to be that wizards are unfair to them, no matter who is in charge, and so why bother getting involved?
He can't say that they're entirely wrong. But still, he tries.
He tries as the world finds out that Voldemort is back for sure, when it becomes more than the word of a teenager. He tries as the Order grows stronger and the Death Eaters do too. Bill, as has always been one of his talents, helps fight the war of words.
He isn't sure, in the long run, how much it helps. Dumbledore still dies.
Dumbledore is dead.
It doesn't seem quite real, when Ron says it.
Dumbledore is dead.
It doesn't seem possible.
Dumbledore is dead and Bill is permanently scarred and this night was a massive disaster. Fleur finally earns his mother's approval, though, so there's that.
.
In the end, he doesn't marry Fleur. His mother is right; they're rushing into it and while Bill has always kind of liked living in whirlwinds, he's not quite sure he knows how to do forever. Not right now. Not like this.
She slaps him, when he tells her. Then she kisses him. "You are a good man, Bill," she says softly, and then she packs her bags.
He feels some sort of sadness, but not remorse.
.
Mad-Eye dies, and somehow this feels like a beginning of sorts. The beginning of it all, where without Dumbledore, anyone is at risk.
Voldemort takes the Ministry, takes Hogwarts. With Dumbledore gone, it feels like there is no one to stop him. Harry goes missing, and takes with him Bill's little brother and Hermione Granger. Bill hopes and prays to every deity he can think of — and they are many, having his work experience — that they will all be okay, because he does not know what else to put his faith in.
Then Ron shows up on his doorstep, looking somewhere in between furious and fiercely regretful. He stays with Bill until after Christmas, and then he and his things disappear, with just a note left in his messy scrawl:
Bill,
I've found them again.
Ron
Bill doesn't know how that's possible but he knows what it means, and he's happy for Ron.
It means that he is alone again, but the truth is that Bill doesn't mind. He works and he does what he can for the Order and he isn't bored, and that's all he needs.
Until Ollivander, a boy who introduces himself as Dean Thomas, little Luna Lovegood, and a house elf show up outside his house in the middle of the night. Without requiring explanation, Bill moves Ollivander inside, using his medical supplies to patch the man up temporarily. Another crack sounds outside, and there is his brother, Ron, holding Hermione up at the waist. She is pale and drawn, her arm is bleeding viciously, and she looks furious.
Easily, Bill scoops her from Ron's arms and takes her inside, cleaning and bandaging her arm and giving her a potion that should take the edge off of the Cruciatus curse after-effects. Another crack sounds, and Ron nods that he'll stay as Bill gets up to see who is appearing on his beach this time.
It is Harry Potter, and the house-elf from before, as well as Griphook, a goblin Bill knows only in passing. This time, the house-elf is dead. Harry is weeping.
Dean carries the goblin inside, pausing only to ask Bill where his medkit is. Bill tells him, and then looks at Harry helplessly, trying to figure out how to help.
Harry asks for a spade, and Bill gives it to him, and then retreats, knowing intuitively that Harry needs this.
After that, it is a whirlwind few days until Harry, Ron, and Hermione disappear with a pop, leaving Dean, Luna, Ollivander, and Griphook behind. All in all, not exactly how Bill expected to spend his Christmas holidays.
.
Eventually, it all comes to a head. Bill gets a Patronus from Kingsley, calling all Order members to the Hog's Head. It is a mess, spells flying, rubble everywhere. Bill thanks everything he can think of that the Death Eaters are stupid enough to wear their distinctive robes and masks, because otherwise the chaos would be compounded.
And then it all stops, the world stills as Voldemort's voice echoes around them and they are granted reprieve, temporary reprieve and Bill wants nothing more than to collapse where he is standing. But he can't, he doesn't, he keeps moving, helping, clearing away rubble and rounding up bodies until he sees the one that stops him in his tracks.
Fred is lying on the floor, still as stone, Percy standing there looking lost, George kneeling at his head looking broken.
Bill goes cold, his mind uttering a litany that consists only of the word no as he moves toward them as though through sludge. The world moves slowly.
Percy gives him one look and, as though without thinking, wraps his arms around Bill and tucks his head into Bill's shoulder. It is the first time Percy has hugged him since… Bill can't even remember. He wraps his arms fiercely around his little brother, squeezing tightly.
"It was my fault," Percy says. "I distracted him; it was my fault."
Bill just shakes his head. "It was the damned war's fault, Percy, not yours. You didn't do this."
Percy shakes with silent sobs. Bill closes his eyes and holds his little brother tightly.
.
Eventually, time starts moving again. Harry dies and then disappears. Some kid called Neville Longbottom kills Voldemort's snake. The battle moves back into the castle, spells flying every which way. His mother is a hero, victoriously taking down Bellatrix Lestrange.
And then, suddenly, Harry is back and dueling Voldemort and then, just like that, it all ends. Voldemort's body hits the floor with a thump, and it is over.
.
But it isn't, really. Over, that is. In some ways, it is. There is no more fighting. No more spells flying, no more death counts in the double digits. But there is so much to do, reconstruction, repair. They are a different people now. What they have seen cannot be unseen, cannot be undone.
Bill stays for a year, helping to rebuild, and then he flees to Egypt, where he can breathe without being stifled.
He finds her, a few years later, sitting at a table outside a small cafe, staring at a map. He sits down across from her.
"'lo, Hermione. Didn't exactly expect to see you here."
Hermione shrugs. "Haven't been here long. Probably won't be, either."
"Passing through?"
She nods.
"Want to see the real thing before you go? The inside?"
She nods gratefully, appearing curious. Bill grins again and tosses a few Egyptian pounds on the table, standing and offering her his hand.
.
She doesn't leave, like she said she would. She stays, talking about runes and tombs and proving that she'd make a great curse-breaker in her own right. So he gets her a job, has her working with his company, and she's running her own digs in less than six months.
She is fierce and intelligent and some kind of crazy force of nature. She is also about seven years younger than him and his little brother's best friend. But that doesn't seem to matter anymore.
He falls for her sharp tongue and her quick wit and her crazy brain. He likes the way she laughs and the way she talks and the way she doesn't ever pull her punches. A few months later, he tells her to quit paying for a hostel and just move in already.
So she does.